Under the headship of James Legge, a noted missionary, the London Missionary Society established Union Church and To Tsai Church in Hong Kong to serve western and Chinese followers. He moved the Anglo-Chinese College from Malacca to Hong Kong and founded the Chinese Serial, the first newspaper on western learning in Hong Kong. Apart from all these, Legge had also translated many Chinese classics into English, established the College of Medicine, opened clinics, assisted in government education and promoted a number of social reforms like the prohibition of opium, gambling and slave trade.

In To Tsai Church was amassed a crowd of "westernized" Chinese followers whose espousal of new thinking turned the Church into a breeding place of reform. Soon their advocacy was directed towards revolution. These believers-cum-political commentators, most notably Ho Kai, Wong Shing, Au Fung-chi, Wong Yuk-cho, Chan Siu-bak and Hung Jen-kan, kept conferring about the affairs of state, sending advices to the Qing court and publicizing their political attitude through newspapers with a view to save the country.

Returning to Hong Kong, Mr. Sun was introduced to To Tsai Church through his friend Au Fung-chi. There he got to discuss freely about religion and politics with critics like Wong Yuk-cho and Chan Siu-bak and communicate his views on reforms to the youth through fellowship activities. It was said that he often read sensitive books and magazines, which were "unfit to be circulated publicly", in the church, and studied Chinese from Au Fung-chi and medicine from Ho Kai there. These teacher-friends of his would be the backers of the Revive China Society he later founded.

To Tsai Church was the major platform for evangelization and the dissemination of western thoughts. It was headed, apart from James Legge, by Rev. Leung Faat and Rev. Hoh Fuk-tong (alias Ho Tsun-shin), the first two Chinese clergies in the whole of China. In 1888, Rev. Wong Yuk-cho opened a house of prayer at Hollywood Road and declared it the first Chinese-founded church independent of western command. Such was the beginning of self-governed Chinese church free from western imperialism.